


the stars shine bright (but never as bright as you)

by stellarisms



Series: 2020 Writing Challenge [6]
Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Banter, Domestic Fluff, Endearments, Established Relationship, Idiots in Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:35:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22155610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarisms/pseuds/stellarisms
Summary: It's a beautiful summer night underneath the stars that Seonghwa recalls just why it was that he fell so fast and deep in love with one tiny firecracker of a man.
Relationships: Kim Hongjoong/Park Seonghwa
Series: 2020 Writing Challenge [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1588921
Comments: 2
Kudos: 91





	the stars shine bright (but never as bright as you)

**Author's Note:**

> first ateez fic kinda nervous (but glad...very glad)

Beneath the poolside patio table, Seonghwa feels someone’s boot nudge his ankle.

At first, he figures someone accidentally kicked him and didn’t mean to.

In a group of eight, at a dinner party this lively? Anything’s possible.

A beat. 

It doesn’t happen again, so Seonghwa forgets about it.

When he rejoins Wooyoung and San’s good-humored bickering over their next choreography roles, that’s when Seonghwa feels a pointed tap - at his _knee_ this time.

He looks across the table, slight left, and. Realizes.

“What?” He mouths - at Hongjoong, because Seonghwa is **so** sure that was him.

It was, as it turns out, because only Yeosang (too far right) and Mingi (positioned sideways, chattering to Yunho getting food from the other side of the table) were on that side and didn’t acknowledge Seonghwa’s question at all.

Hongjoong did, though.

With a sheepish grin.

“Walk with me,” he mouths - in English, which thank _god_ Seonghwa has picked up more on studying these days - and slowly rises to standing with an exaggerated stretch-sigh motion. “Mingi-ah, Yeosangie, sorry! Just remembered something...m’gonna go make a phone call real fast and then I’ll be back to hear the rest, okay? Gimme about ten, maybe fifteen tops?”

“Sure, it’s cool.” Mingi, agreeable as ever, shifts his seat and motions for Yunho to put more on his plate for him to share. “See ya, hyung. Don’t let the mosquitoes get you too bad, yeah?”

“You wanna borrow a jacket, Hongjoong-hyung?” Yeosang’s doleful stare looks concerned. “Then the bugs won’t bite.” 

“I’m okay, ‘Sangie. Thanks, though.” His tone airy, Hongjoong turns on his heel with a quick wave. “Be right back! And don’t steal anything from my plate while I’m gone, Sannie! Woo, I’ll trust you to keep watch!”

Dammit. 

Seonghwa needs an excuse to get up now, doesn’t he...

“Aye, aye, Captain!” Wooyoung shouts, knowing Hongjoong is all the way across the lawn at this point. 

Seonghwa scoots his chair backwards a little too fast, enough that it squeaks.

Whoops.

How should he explain...

“What’s wrong, Hwa-hyung?” Well-intentioned, Jongho peers at him concerned through his bangs.

“I...bathroom?”

“Sure, go for it?” San gives a sage nod, foxlike smile on full display like he knows something's up. Seonghwa doesn’t doubt he does, which is why he freezes in mid-standing position. “But you don’t have to announce it, hyung.”

“Unless,” Wooyoung might have caught on (Seonghwa swears those two have a telepathic connection), because he and Mingi are smirking now, “you’re gonna be blowing it up in there.”

“Ewwwww.” Mingi plugs his nose, sending Jongho and Wooyoung into shrieking hysterics. “Keep it to yourself, man!”

“Oh my god, you kids are disgusting--” Seonghwa’s laughter is convincing enough, he hopes, and he’s assured that Yeosang and Yunho join in the chorus of cackles and hoots before long. “Whatever, I’m going! Bye. Stay outside if you know what’s good for you and your five senses, children.” Seonghwa steps around his seat and pats Wooyoung’s hair on the way through the sliding glass door left ajar. “Remember: our fearless Leader’s counting on you to Be Good.” 

“Yes, Dad.” Wooyoung says it like a joke, but he is one of Seonghwa’s unruly babies. And Seonghwa might have a bigger soft spot for the rambunctious younger ones-- but, hey, if no one’s here to supervise… “See ya whenever you get off the bowl.”

Somehow, Seonghwa doubts that’ll be the last of their fond sarcastic remarks.

Oh, well.

* * *

He has to slip in and back out around, front to back, to catch up to Hongjoong in the courtyard.

A glance at his phone confirms Hongjoong **_would_ **pick the most predictable rendezvous option: the flower-dappled shrubbery along the side of his parents’ house.

Of course.

“You took your sweet time getting over here.” Hongjoong spins on his heel, dancing without music or performance intent. “The kids wouldn’t stop talking to you or what?”

Seonghwa pockets his phone, steps - and heart - growing lighter.

“More like they thought I had a bad case of the runs,” Seonghwa tells him, once he’s made it next to Hongjoong, “and they were ragging on me preemptively for the stench.”

Hongjoong, when he’s dressed down and makeupless, really doesn’t hold back when he laughs.

“Yeah,” gasps Hongjoong, after his breath was stolen away by an aftermath coughing fit. “They’re our kids, alright.” 

It occurs to Seonghwa, then, while he pulls Hongjoong in by the waist just to plant a kiss on his forehead--

“When **did** we get this grossly domestic?” Seonghwa chuckles at Hongjoong’s not-quite pout, clearly offended that Seonghwa was pulling away from him. Or that he didn’t go right for it. “Feels like it was just yesterday that we were so awkward around each other, we’d make up every excuse in the book not to sit by each other during recordings.”

“That was after you got so drunk everything that came out of your mouth was a terrible pick-up line,” Hongjoong reminds him. “And before you and I finally had enough of the dancing around and cornered each other in the dressing room."

"Before we went out for an encore stage, no less." Reminiscing aside, Seonghwa has to correct him-- "And, hello? You cornered _me_ . I only reversed how we were pressed up against the wall because you did that _thing_ with your _tongue_ , and after **that--** "

"How much trouble do you think we'd get into," Hongjoong interrupts him, "if your parents came home from their business trip early and found all the kids running around by the pool and us sucking face here out on the lawn?"

Seonghwa chokes.

"Oh my god, _Joong--_!"

"I'm kidding!" Hongjoong giggles - there's no other way to describe that high-pitched noise that bubbles up in his throat. "Kidding, kidding...I'd only do it if you were down to do it, Hwa."

"I believe that." Seonghwa knows it's true. "If I said yes, you'd probably have my clothes and yours off in record time."

"I'd do anything for you," says Hongjoong. It's his eyes, Seonghwa knows, that speak only truths every time. "You know that, right? Seriously, Hwa. Anything you want, it's yours."

The sobering thing - about the shift in atmosphere, how earnest and ethereal Hongjoong looks under the moonlight and the distant streetlamps - is how those words alone Seonghwa's heart responds **_instantly_ **.

That warm bursting sensation through his veins.

The unsteady, quickening beats, after his heart seemingly grew in his chest at least fifteen sizes.

The tiniest contented sigh that leaves Hongjoong's parted lips, mere seconds before Seonghwa eases him back in for a slow, deepening kiss.

_("I've always, always adored you, Hwa. Not like a friend, not like a guy does his hyung, or should, probably...like I'd sooner throw myself into oncoming traffic than live without you._

_"It's, like...I've been trying so damn hard this year to be more honest with myself. About myself."_

_"...L-Look, it's. It's okay if you don't feel the same for me, it's_ fine _, but--_ ")

Seonghwa kisses him - like he did that day, like he does before they drift off to sleep side-by-side - in reply.

His leader, his roommate-turned-friend, his best friend, became someone so near, dear, and beloved to him over the last year.

His Hongjoongie, the only member younger than him that he never expected to be this soft for.

"And I'd bring _you_ the world if you asked me, Joong-ah." Then again, Seonghwa thinks, he's holding his entire world in his arms right now; the rest can wait in the rafters for his attention later. "I love you. Really do love you. So, so much."

Hongjoong, briefly, appears so close to crying Seonghwa almost stops him from ducking down fast and burying his face into his chest.

Until a scant five seconds of chilling silence later…

He hears - feels - Hongjoong shaking his head and...

Laughing?

"We really are," crows Hongjoong, throwing his head back and staring up at the stars, "gross and domestic as _fuck_. Wow. Is it my sentimentality rubbing off on you, or--?" 

Hongjoong's eyes are dry, when his gaze returns to a stunned Seonghwa.

But there's a dazzling light hidden within them, brighter than any spotlight or stars Seonghwa's been illuminated beneath.

Hongjoong really is--

"The love of my life." Seonghwa smiles, not afraid to show his teeth or the tilting at the corners of his lips. Or to kiss Hongjoong with each new term of endearment. "My little Star. My favorite person. My one, my only. My Precious."

"Ugh. Now you're just being a sap on purpose," groans Hongjoong, like he isn't leaning in and reciprocating each and every kiss. "Stooooooop, Hwa. O-Or else... I'll seriously consider stripping and pulling you down to lie down with me right here on the lawn."

"Ewwwwww," Seonghwa imitates his offended tone. "So I'll have to explain to the kids why I changed my clothes **and** smell like freshly-lawned grass? Looking forward to that." 

"Just say you really did have a bad case of the runs," Hongjoong quips, tugging at Seonghwa's lower lip with hooded eyes, "'n that I helped you clean yourself up outside." 

Seonghwa can't _believe_ him.

"You're worse than the kids, I swear." Seonghwa teases, but he melts into Hongjoong's rough, absolutely breathtaking kiss for the next minute or two.

Seonghwa can't believe he's _his_ , either - but that's one personal victory he'll be okay keeping to himself.

* * *

More important than anything is the man in his arms who wants to show his adoration for Seonghwa at this given moment.

And how - caught in a moment like this - Seonghwa needs nothing from the world outside of this.

(Because there's nowhere in the world, Seonghwa knows, that he would rather be.)

  
  



End file.
